Research as an Act of Resistance: Responsive, Temporally Framed Narrative Inquiry

Abstract

In this paper I frame systemic, narrative informed, group work practice as an act of solidarity; and narrative inquiry as an act of resistance and activism. I describe research I have been part of as an intervention into (and a resistance against) discourses of individualised psychopathology that exist within the mental health services (where I have worked for the last decade) and colonising practices that can and do exist in academia. Part of the narrative is my own story of movement from research informed practitioner to practice based researcher which includes an exploration of an evolving relationship with power. I also describe how I have devised a five-step process to inquire into my own group work practices – a process I have called a responsive, temporally framed narrative inquiry. Responsive because it has been designed to be adaptive and attuned to the inevitable movement between research ‘material’ and people involved in any such inquiry. Temporally framed, and with an emphasis on narrative, because it pays attention to past stories (of abuse and oppression), present feelings in relation to those stories and narratives that develop through inquiry that are ‘future forming’ and speak to ‘preferred futures’.